Super Bowl: Gerald McCoy visits

Gerald McCoy is at the Super Bowl as a reporter for the OCNN, the Chad Ochocinco social network. Yes, it’s nonsense. But McCoy likes to have a good time, and his presence at the Super Bowl raises the class of Chad Johnson (he’s changing his name back) a tad.

McCoy stopped in to chat with the panel at the NFL Network on Tuesday at Super Bowl media day.

“It’s great being here,” McCoy said. “I’d rather have on a jersey right now, but hey, I’m having fun.”

McCoy, the rookie out of OU who was a star at Southeast High School in Oklahoma City, had a solid first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. McCoy played in 13 games — an injury curtailed his season — and had 22 tackles and three sacks.

McCoy commented on a variety of subjects:

On his slow start to the season: “I kind of started off the same way at Oklahoma. I kind of got to get a feel of things. I don’t think necessarily it was nerves, just me getting a feel of how the NFL works. Then our coaches talk about turning it up the second half of the season, because we were on our a race to 10 (wins; the Bucs finished 10-6). I actually bought into that. I said, ‘OK, now turn it up.’ Really, I started to play better up until the injury and things started to flow for me.”

On the Bucs’ surprisingly successful season: “It all starts with the top. Our GM, Mr. Mark Dominik, and our head coach, Raheem Morris. You guys know how fiery he is. Think about how he is with the media. You can only imagine how he is with us, off camera. It kind of fires us up. It’s not an arrogant thing. It’s a confidence builder. We hear him say that, we know as a unit we have to back him up when he makes statements like he does.”

On his rivalry with fellow defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the Nebraska Cornhusker, who was drafted second overall, one spot above McCoy, and made the Pro Bowl: “I’m not an excuse-maker. I require greatness, and until I get to that point, I’m not satisfied. Ndamukong Suh had a great year, Pro Bowl, all-pro. His surrounding cast was great. Mine was too. It’s just a different style of defense. We had a good unit. Like I said, I’m not an excuse-maker. He had a great year. He picked it up early. I started picking mine up early in the year, but he picked it up early and kept building each week. He’s just a great player.”